Future Food presents: Follow the Food 2nd Seminar: The Power of Place – Apricots between Heritage and the Market in Central Asia

On Monday, November 18th, environmental historian Flora Roberts and rural sociologist Irna Hofman explored the topic of apricots in Tajikistan during the second Follow the Food seminar. The seminar, hosted by Future Food Utrecht, attracted an interdisciplinary audience of students, researchers and representatives from civil society organizations with a passion for food systems.

The seminar explored the complex relationship between apricot cultivation, heritage, and the global market in Central Asia, focusing particularly on Tajikistan. The presentations examined the historical, environmental, and socio-economic dimensions of apricot farming in the region, framed within the larger context of social responsibility, sustainability, and market dynamics.

Environmental and Historical Perspectives

Dr. Flora Roberts, an environmental historian, began the seminar by providing a historical and geographical overview of apricot cultivation in Tajikistan, focusing on its deep connection to the land and the region’s agricultural heritage. Serving apricots and other fruits to guests is an important component of Tajik traditions of hospitality. In her talk, Roberts highlighted the Ferghana Valley, a region with a rich tradition of fruit cultivation. She noted that some of the apricot varieties in Tajikistan do not grow anywhere else, adding to the region’s agricultural biodiversity.

Tajikistan has a predominantly rural population. It is a landlocked, mountainous country with poor roads and almost non-existent rail networks. This limits access to both local and international markets for the sale of fresh fruit. However, Roberts highlighted that apricots are often sold dried and keep for a long time if stored well. Roberts’ research has focused for many years on the environmental and social history of the Ferghana valley. During her presentation, she traced the historical evolution of apricot cultivation and trade, which goes back multiple centuries. She noted that apricots were already linked to place-based identities by the likes of emperors like Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, hundreds of years ago.

During the Russian Empire and later under Soviet rule, apricot production shifted to meet state-driven agricultural policies. In the Soviet era, the focus on cotton production displaced fruit crops, including apricots. The government encouraged the use of vast areas of land for cotton cultivation, leading to high water needs and the construction of dams, which ultimately resulted in the flooding of many apricot orchards in the Ferghana region.

While the state’s focus on cotton severely disrupted apricot farming, Roberts pointed out that households continued to produce apricots on small home garden plots for local consumption and trade. This practice, while important to ensure that households could economically support themselves and urban residents could access a balanced diet, was demonized in the media by the Soviet propaganda. Even so, many considered apricots as having healing properties, and they were widely used in folk medicine.

After the collapse of the centralized command economy in the early 1990s, apricot orchards started to be replanted. Reduced access to markets and a decrease in buyers for cotton made it more attractive for farmers to shift back to cultivating apricots, as they could adapt to market needs by selling them immediately or storing them and selling them at a later point in time.

The Apricot Economy and Social Change

Dr. Irna Hofman, a rural sociologist specializing in agrarian and social change in Central Asia, then provided a sociological perspective on the apricot economy in Tajikistan. Hofman built her presentation on the extensive research that she has carried out in Tajikistan since 2012 focusing on rural economies, agricultural change, and social dynamics.

Hofman began by explaining that besides the Ferghana region, apricot production is also significant in Gorno Badakhshan and Rasht Valley regions. Like Roberts, Hofman shared that apricot trees are widely cultivated in household plots for both family consumption and commercial purpose, making apricots a key food and economic product for many rural households.

She pointed out the expansion of apricot orchards in recent years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the reconfiguration of national borders, apricot farming in Tajikistan became more fragmented. The Ferghana region, which was once a single administrative area, is now divided among three countries (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan), complicating cross-border trade and making coordination more difficult. Additionally, the orchard resurgence in the 1990s brought with it a growing number of actors and intermediaries. Today, farm enterprises, household plots and commercial farms all produce apricots with very different yields and conditions.

Hofman highlighted the biodiversity of apricots in Tajikistan, noting that the country has over 122 different varieties. The diversity of apricots is not only a source of pride but also a key economic asset. Tajikistan is among the top five exporters of dried apricots globally, with significant trade relationships in countries like Russia and Kazakhstan. However, while international interest in Tajik apricots is growing, it is not without tension. Some international actors, such as USAID, push for the introduction of higher-yielding apricot varieties, threatening the genetic diversity of Tajik apricots, while others, mostly European actors, focus on preserving traditional varieties and increasing the resilience of orchards.

Tajik apricot production is not without its challenges. Hofman reminded the audience that climate change, water scarcity, and rising temperatures are increasingly threatening apricot yields and local livelihoods, as late frosts and rising temperatures disrupt growing cycles, while droughts further stress orchards. Socio-economically, Tajikistan’s migration patterns, especially labor migration, have led to a loss of knowledge and skills around traditional apricot cultivation. As many older men leave for work abroad, traditional orchard management techniques are no longer passed down to younger generations.

A key issue that emerged was the potential use of Geographic Indications (GIs) to boost the market value of Tajik apricots. GIs recognize products that have a unique geographic origin, but their implementation is complex. Some see GIs as a way to increase farmer incomes and preserve local agricultural practices, while others are concerned about their impact on farmer autonomy and resilience. Hofman ended her talk by asking a poignant open question to the room. “In a context of significant power hierarchies, at societal and household level, who decides what? To what extent is one imposing or offering development trajectories and/or responding to demand or requests?”

 A potential way forward: Alternative Food Networks

 Dr. Ozan Alakavuklar opened the discussion by introducing alternative food networks as alternatives to conventional food systems based on high carbon print large-scale industrialized agriculture dominated by corporations. He explained that alternative food networks focused on locality, quality, embeddedness and sustainability, and explained how they could fit within alternative economies. Presenting the examples of producer and consumer cooperatives, food autonomy movements and free food stores, he highlighted that their existence opens up questions that audiences are not used to, including the consideration of the extent to which these alternative systems include and benefit small-scale farmers in the Global South.

Geographic Indications (GIs), Cultural Legacies and Development

As Hofman and Roberts highlighted, the introduction of GIs could theoretically help Tajik apricot producers secure higher prices in international markets. However, GIs also bring challenges, particularly in terms of limiting the autonomy of farmers who might face new regulations and external pressures on how they manage their crops. From the discussion it became clear that In the case of Tajikistan, where farmers face fluctuating weather conditions and unstable market prices, adaptability is a critical skill and that the introduction of rigid market standards or GIs could potentially reduce this flexibility and exacerbate existing vulnerabilities.

Martijn Huysmans, the coordinator of Follow the Food Utrecht, added that in the EU context, GIs have often been associated with development benefits, particularly in terms of securing quality recognition. For instance, when Port wine started getting exported to the UK, merchants tried to freeride on its reputation. As this threatened to erode the recognition of Port wine, an early form of GI protection was set up. GIs are also seen as a way to strengthen small farmers through producer organizations who collectively define and manage a GI. Of course, as highlighted by Roberts and Hofman, in a post-Soviet context farmers may be skeptical about anything that has a collective nature. Questions arose about the potential for similar benefits in Tajikistan, considering the geopolitical complexities that shape its agricultural landscape.

As Tajikistan navigates the complexities of post-Soviet agricultural reform and global market integration, the insights from this seminar underscore the importance of context-sensitive ‘glocal’ solutions (to use Bassetti Foundation language) that address both the challenges and opportunities facing small-scale apricot producers. Further research and dialogue are needed to ensure that interventions empower local farmers and preserve traditional agricultural knowledge while promoting the revitalization of Tajik livelihoods and the resilience of Taijk orchards.